The objective of the survey was to recognize institution and their role in enterprises development in rural areas. The research was carried out in northern and eastern parts of Poland. Particular attention was given to organisational and legal forms of rural enterprises, and the role of institutions in the process of enterprise development. At the outset, entrepreneurs indicated the territorial range of the activities being carried out. Respondents were asked to indicate institutions which had helped them run their enterprises and agricultural holdings. Moreover, entrepreneurs indicated the areas in which they wished to broaden their knowledge. Furthermore, entrepreneurs assessed the advice as well as the role of institutions as a source of entrepreneurship development. The research shows that rural entrepreneurs had been co-operating with more than 70 institutions, which indicates a wide range of advisory needs. The highest rating among respondents achieved the ARiMR (4 pts) and ODRs (3.2 pts). The advisory needs mainly included: profitability calculations (9.9%), identification of markets (8.4%), book-keeping (7.6%), and identification of contracting parties (2.2%). Most respondents assessed the advice as complete and good.

The aim of the research was to present the most important factors for sustainable tourism development, and analyze the Wolin community’ involvement to the principles of sustainable development. The research assumes that knowledge about sustainable development among residents of Wolin region has a big influence on their involvement in tourism development and environmental protection. Source materials on the opinion of residents were obtained from tests performed in 2010. The study involved 100 residents; the data collection questionnaire method was used. Material collected in conjunction with the source material was prepared in the form of summary tables for the presentation of the issues discussed. For study relationships between the selected features were used the coefficient correlation, V-Cramer’s based on χ2 statistics.

Women’s involvement in agriculture and agribusiness is increasingly recognized as an important component of success in farm and ranch production and management. Women have unique information needs to help them more fully participate in agricultural decision-making. This has resulted in the development and implementation of agricultural training projects and programs specifically targeting rural women. Although there has been anecdotal evidence that these programs have benefitted women in agriculture, there had been no formal evaluation of the efficacy of agricultural training programs in South Dakota. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of an assessment and evaluation study of the agricultural training program Sustainable Annie’s Systems in South Dakota for Years to Come (SASSY). The research was conducted to provide empirical evidence as to the degree that this program had a positive impact on the participants. This article shares those results.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and seek equivalents of behaviours which in respect of living organisms are defined as altruistic, i.e. consisting of certain activities aimed at drawing advantages by other individuals, with simultaneous resignation of own advantage by one of the participants of the so-called altruistic act. Altruistic acts, as a negation of egoism, are often observed among numerous living creatures, but also within the whole human communities with their complex cultural and economic structures. The forms and mechanisms of such behaviours are interesting, as they are typically not aimed at satisfying the needs of specific individuals, ready to share their resources with other individuals, as a consequence of which they themselves may lose. In biology, altruistic behaviours are typically associated with organisms closely related to each other. Such acts are reasonable in the context of revolutionary considerations, as helping one’s own relatives increases the chance of spreading one’s genes. Description of such behaviours is different in economic lives of societies, where altruistic behaviours can be observed as well, whether in the form of sponsoring, or of welfare state, i.e. targeted at completely strange individuals as well. Explanation of the reason behind such behaviours seems to get us closer to understanding of certain patterns of activity in biology as well as in social and economic behaviours, which consist of acting in a manner that brings advantage to others. However, altruism of such activities depends on complex factors and is therefore complicated and oftentimes also apparent, leading to more comprehensive achievement of one’s own egoistic agenda in the long-term.

The article deals with the issue of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) after 2013, especially with its relation with the strategic development plan of the European Union. The first part of the study presents an overview of the objectives of the CAP in the new financial perspective. The objectives are supposed to be a response to emerging new challenges. Then there is a presentation of the reform scenarios considered by the European Commission. They provide for the adjustment of the policy tools to the long-term development plan. This was the starting point for the exegesis of the strategic objective of the CAP. The conclusion states that designing the policy tools focused on the long-term goal of the CAP requires balancing the objectives related to the efficiency of agriculture in the production of market goods with the objectives related to the efficiency of this sector in delivering public goods.

The goal of the article is to determine the main factors of success in raising European funds by selected communes in eastern Poland. On the basis of performed in-depth studies in municipalities it was noted that the factors that made the studied communes effectively apply for EU funds were similar in all municipalities, regardless of type, level and location of development. It was, first of all, organizational efficiency of the offices, competence and knowledge of their workers and high-quality strategic planning. Everywhere special positions or teams of employees involved in the acquisition of EU funds were created. All municipalities have created current development strategies and current land use plans and on the basis of these documents the application for EU funds was performed. Also important is the strong engagement and consistency of employees and local leaders, including the mayors. An important factor of effectiveness is also the stability of management and climate of cooperation between the commune council and the mayor or president.

The paper presents a method of estimating the output gap for Poland, advised by Blanchard and Quah [1989]. This method stems from the traditional Keynesian and neoclassical synthesis, with identifies potential output with the aggregate supply capacity of the economy and cyclical fluctuations with changes in aggregate demand. There were made an estimation and verification of vector autoregression model VAR(2) for the growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and unemployment rate, than of its structuring. Determination of the reaction function of demand and supply, in particular the reaction function of GDP growth on the demand-side disorder, allowed the estimation of the size of output gap. Potential output can be described as following a random walk if production impulse evolve as a stochastic trend, for example, if productivity growth depends on the stochastic arrival of new technologies.